I get skiddies with some frequency and I can remember the old addage my mother used to tell me on laundry day: “You wouldn’t get them if you wiped better!”
Well Mother, I do wipe. Repeatedly. Yet I still get them. Still, being a briefs-wearer, it happens that once a while my undies get wadded up my buttcrack and I assume this is when the skidmarking process takes places. It is my assertion that skidmarks are not actual poopstains but buttsweat residue. You know, like armpit stains, only browner.
So Male Dopers, your opinions? Skidmarks: Unavoidable fact of life or just the result of lazy wiping?
Also, I’ve never heard of females getting skidmarks. Ladies, does it ever happen? You can tell me. I’m a doctor. Well, not really.
No, I haven’t had skidmarks since I was a small child. Until I was about 5 or 6 my mother (or grandmothers/aunts) would do “inspections” every so often (usually after baths) to make sure I cleaned myself properly. What skidmarks are are a combination of residual fecal matter mixed with sweat. I vote for lazy wiping.
Just keep wiping until there’s no trace left on the paper, and you should be good to go.
(I used to work with a fella who advised wiping until the paper comes away pink, but I think he was a tiny bit obsessive.)
If you continue to have a problem with this, I second the recommendation of wet wipes. It’s really not something you ought to shrug off.
I’ve seen girly skidmarks at least three times in nearly as many decades of scrutinizing women’s underthings – so it happens, once-in-a-while – it ain’t little puffs of baby powder emitted by the feminine anus.
Well, as I’d say with a man with more hair on his ass than nearly anywhere else on his body, that this is a huge problem. One good way to do it is to train yourself to go poop before your shower. This is fine if you do it once a day. But yeah, I have to have a rigorous wiping regime to avoid it. I had them when I was a child, and as I grew older, they went away, then around 18 the ass-hair fairy arrived to give me the problem again.
I’ve never had skidmarks (I’m a guy), but having dated a number of women who exclusively wore thongs/g-strings, I’d say it’s much more common with women. Something about having the material wedged up tight to the sphincter all day makes for skiddies on the thong.
Female piping in here. I’d honestly thought that this was something that just existed as silly bathroom humor up until a few years ago. It’s not something I’d ever experienced myself–I can’t even recall having “skidmarks” as a child–and not something I ever came across while doing laundry for family or roommates. But then as a young woman in college I happened upon a gentleman’s underwear with a tell-tale mark on them and was shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Wearing standard bikini style panties, I’ve never had an issue with this. I’d really thought it was a rare thing that people joked about more than it actually existed. Oh, how sheltered I’ve been.
Male, hairy butt, wet-wipes. Cottonelle makes a nice product with a pop-up lid. Use them for the final pass and your shorts and laundress will thank you.
I don’t have this problem, but if I did, diaper wipes would get rid of it. Wiping a lot is really bad for the ass; gives you rhoids, or makes them worse, depending.
I’ve found that eating a lot of All-Bran (a lot being a third to a half cup a day) makes it so I hardly have to wipe at all. Really.
I seem to remember a thread similar to this (sorry, can’t be ‘arsed’ to search at the moment ) and several posters had problems with…ahem…incomplete evacuation. No amount of wiping will eliminate the problem if recalcitrant poop remains topside.
I read once that the actor George Hamilton only wears a pair of socks and shorts once and then tosses 'em. Given that my Fruit of the Looms only cost a buck or less a pair, I think I’d be doing that if I had such a problem.
I recently bought my son a box of flushable wipes (found in the diaper/wipes section). I don’t know if they make the flushable kind for adults, but I thought it was a pretty good idea.
Edited to add: I looked them up and the Cottonelle ones mentioned above are flushable. Also, I need to unsubscribe from this thread, because I really don’t need five thousand emails with “skidmark” in the subject, TYVM.
I must admit: My son has that problem, and I’ve nagged him incessantly about wiping and have bought wet wipes and got his to eat figs, but the problem persists… If there’s a cure I’d love to hear about it!!! (And the problem started pre-hair.)
I’m female and used to have a few here and there when I was a kid, when it really may have been bad wiping habits. My one and only thong is black, so I can’t tell you if I’ve had any issues with that.
My first thought would be that men tend to have hairier rears, thus more for particles to cling to.
) and several posters had problems with…ahem…incomplete evacuation. No amount of wiping will eliminate the problem if recalcitrant poop remains topside.